What Is Gmail Confidential Mode And What Does It Mean For My Small Business?

You send an email to your team. It has “confidential” written all over it, and it was only meant for internal review. But after you sent it, you noticed that instead of adding Sam Harris from your team in the email list, you added Sam Harris from accounting. What now?

Or what if someone else accidentally forwards an email with sensitive information to someone they shouldn’t have? How do you get that back?

Naturally, you want the data stored on your Gmail to be confidential and kept away from unauthorized eyes. One possible solution? It may be Gmail Confidential mode.

What Is It?

Gmail confidential mode is a setting that allows you to increase the security of certain emails. Recipients of messages in confidential mode don’t have the option to copy, print, or download messages, not even attachments. They can view only.

Additionally, you can set an expiration date for the email, and once that date is passed the message is automatically deleted. Email access can also be revoked at any time, so if you sent an email to one person accidentally (who should not be authorized to view it,) you can have their access removed.

For another layer of security, Gmail confidential mode even allows you to set up an SMS verification process. The Gmail users will only be able to read the message after they type in the unique code they got on their smartphone, so you limit the chances of another person accessing the email.

What Does It Mean for You?

Gmail confidential mode is a very useful tool in an organization, particularly because it can help you manage who has access to what information, when, and for how long.

With this setting, you can effectively minimize the risk of company data getting into the wrong hands, as well as keep better track of the employees authorized to review certain information.

Additionally, if you also set up the SMS verification process, emails are kept safe even if a particular device (laptop, tablet, smartphone) has been compromised.

However, it’s important to note that Google confidential mode is not a comprehensive strategy for increasing cybersecurity. Its purpose has more to do with minimizing the potential human errors of, for instance, forwarding a message to the wrong people. In an actual cyber attack, Google confidential mode won’t keep your data secure, unless the attack happens after the emails were scheduled to be deleted.

Signing off

Definitely consider using Gmail confidential mode for your organization. It can help minimize the risk of human error, and even achieve some level of crisis management.